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Yay! Great to see you here! 18 months is actually a GREAT age for weave training – still young and able to learn like a sponge, but old enough to easily know how to use their bodies. Have fun! (And thanks, Lisa!)
Tracy
Hi! What a good boy! It is interesting that he wants to generalize the right side entry (of going to the other side of the pole) to the left side entry as well (my dogs like to do the opposite at this stage :)) But he was figuring out it out nicely! For this level, stay with straight poles so you can work around the clock for him to get those left side entries spot on with you sending and also with motion. Right side entries looked very comfy for him!! If he can do 2 sessions with you moving and getting the angles pretty successfully… onwards to adding poles 3 and 4 (that was posted up yesterday :))
How did the threadle side entries go?
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
He is doing well on driving up the teeter here! The brainwashing is definitely helping! And there was no negative fallout from the flying target incident 🙂 My only suggestion is to always start him on straight line angles so he doesn’t have to lead change to get on (lead changes cause him to have to think, we don’t want thinking LOL!) He is weight shifting a little sooner than he will be eventually, but that will start to change as we add more in coming weeks. I think the incremental addition of tip here and also the fun and parties before and after have really helped him get pumped up! It looks like you can pull a mat out from this setup to add tip? If so… pull out a mat next time (so kind of the LU course setters to leave that there for you LOL!!!)
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>The rubber stopper hit the food tray thing which then caused the lid to flip up in the air when Stark got to the end. Naturally this freaked him out and he bailed off of the top.>>
Bummer about the flying tray! Does he have other concerns about things flying around? He was definitely startled (because it was startling, I mean he was not wrong to be surprised by it LOL!) but we can totally do some desensitization if it is something that happens regularly.
And if something like that happens (because it will again, and also when he goes flying off the top of the RDW because that is going to happen at some point too, it happens with all fast dogs!) – you were good about just giving him his frizzer! Then, it is better to go do something else entirely and come back hours later (or the next day) when the startle is not fresh in his mind – stress/startle responses are chemical releases in the body that take a while to dissipate so trying again right away is usually not successful. You can get the dogs to do it, but it is usually a little more tentative – but coming back to it in few hours or in a day usually is successful and the dog picks up where they left off, no problem. It is hard to do, from the human side of things!! When something weird happens, I tell myself just go do something else and then move the teeter to a new spot for the next day – and it is never an issue when I come back to it.
Let me know if that makes sense! Give him the day off from this setup at home, and then try it in a new spot and see how he feels about it 🙂
TracyGood morning! He did a great job with the bosu ball there. You can move the bosu under the board more (and have the target sticking out from the end of it) so the end of the teeter board is a bit wobbly (like it would be as it is dropping) but he can’t really see it. That will help transition into the visual of ‘nothingness’ as the board falls 🙂 He will still be able to see the target for now to help support the behavior. This is the next piece for driving to and through the end of the board 🙂
You can also invert the bosu as long as it won’t slide out from under the board – maybe jam a couple of tunnel bags around it so it doesn’t move?
Only one tweak here – at this stage, both the uphill and downhill games are one direction only – so don’t let him jump on the bosu side and run up. What was happening was that it creates an unpredictability in the board, so he has to weight shift as it falls as he gets on, then has has to balance… which makes him slow down to find the balance and tip, then run up to the other end. So it rehearses early weight shift when the dogs jump on to the elevated side to run up it. By letting the dogs predict that the ‘get on’ side to run up never moves, they will be fully focused on only the one weight shift at the top, rather than a weight shift on the bottom then another on the top. Let me know if that makes sense, or if I need more coffee haha I might need more coffee either way 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi! He was a little forward reaching for the treat here, but he did have to balance on the bosu to get it (and I think the wobbly board was a little weird for him at first). I think maybe propping the plank so it meets the bosu but is not actually resting on the bosu will help him get his whole body on it? And you can play with raising the cookie up a little bit to see if a slightly higher head position gets a little more rock back.
But overall, the setup is doing what it is intended to do – get him feeling the wobble and movement of the board as as he reaches the end, and adding value to it (especially with the inverted bosu!) So even if he never needs to do the Quarter Horse slide on this setup 🙂 he is still balancing and working his core really nicely, which will help the teeter behavior too!Keep fiddling with this to see if there is a magic combo of board and target height – but as long as he is happy to feel the wobble, we are accomplishing the goal 🙂
Tracy
Hi there!
I am glad the Teach It arrived but I also really like the fancy target at the end of the board in the first part of the video, perfectly positioned! He did well running downhill – more tip than he has had, right? And he seemed perfectly fine with that, driving directly to the end. And happily, I could see no difference in his behavior on the teach it. Yay! One and done was the way to go – big rewards then finished before he could even realize things were different LOL!
So for the next session, leave the same amount of tip but do it with the teach it. And if he continues to be happy about it? Add a little more tip (it will be easier to add tip with the teach it :))Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>> Since the weave class is going well I decided to add the Teeter – but with some trepidation.>>
Welcome!!! Great to see you here 🙂
>>This class may be challenging for us – Summit is EXTREMELY motion and noise sensitive. This piece of equipment triggers him into such over arousal that he has lunged and nipped the teeter and a person who was moving the plank slowly with no bang. We can not be in a building when a teeter is being used – not even in the next room behind closed doors.>>
It might help you to know that this is actually far more common than you would think in the agility world 🙂 For some reason, people don’t like to talk about it! But some dogs are terrified, some dogs try to attack the teeter (BORDER COLLIES, I am looking at YOU! Ha!). There are many great dogs out there who started off being completely triggered by the teeter.
>>We are out of town without our teeter (ha ha – who travels with their teeter?)
Ha! That made me chuckle LOL!
>>So this week we’ll work on the foundations and then try to catch up when we return.>>
Keep me posted – do you have a wobble board? How does he do with that? I think we should start there to get him to understand how to earn reinforcement when there is movement and noise, and how to control the urges to herd/nip/grab in those situations. In general, I reward dogs that want to do that by throwing a reward as far from the wobble board as possible. We might have to start off with Summit on one side of the room, on leash, with incredibly high value rewards, while your son very gently moves the wobble board on the other side of the room. We can split down as much as needed, then put it all back together – the skill will be easy as soon as Summit can control the urges that get triggered.
Tracy
Good morning!
Nice to see him basically acting the same on a different teeter outdoors as he does on the familiar teeter indoors. So rare, so lovely LOL!!!!
Good session here! He was doing a great job hitting and holding position and not just working the MM – I was literally typing that you should move the MM further away and reward from your hand sometimes, and then you started doing that at 1:08. Yay! Love it.I think jumping on from the Klimb was slowing his drive down the board a little because he had to take a moment to balance. He looked faster & more balanced when he started with you at the top of the board.
>>I think tomorrow I may go back to the “wobble” board set up to work on moving into the down quicker.>>
Yes- the real speed elements of driving into position will come from that game, so I think shifting focus to that and to the bang game with position will be helpful for him. Driving downhill doesn’t have much further to go, so we can now shift focus to the other games that will begin to bring things together starting mext week 🙂
>>It’s funny you said this – it was like you were reading my mind. I was thinking as I posted the video, is there more we need to get out of this particular game 😉 But makes sense to use this game and variations on it for balance and strength!!>>
Haha great minds thinking alike LOL!!!!
Great job here!! He is making terrific progress!
TracyGood job on the 3 reps here! She looked really keen on that first rep but then we looking for the tip – I wonder if the restraint before you sent her caused her to be a little off balance? The other 2 looked good! You can stay at this setup for a few days and maybe do some run-across-for-meal moments where she only has to do it once, for her full meal 🙂 When she blasts across on the very 1st time, for 2 short sessions in a row – that is when you can add more tip 🙂
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Great job with this session – after the first rep when she saw what it was all about, she was absolutely nailing it! Good girl! And was also weight-shifting nicely. The wing wrap added speed and the 4 wheeler added excitement, which led to her first ever flyoffs LOL! I think all that plus your motion was a little too hard, so dialing back your motion was the smart move. And I think we should totally use the 4wheeler distraction again the future – it is going to be as exciting as watching a fast dog run before her, so it is a useful distraction.
Those little flyoffs are exactly why the first time they see speed/excitement into end position is on the wobble board. I rather that all of the errors get sorted out here before we put them across the full teeter, both toe avoid errors on the teeter and also to avoid the dogs scaring themselves on the teeter. So keep working this game, take the wobble board to different places, and we will build it up to fabulousness with all the speed and distractions 🙂
Nice work!
TracyGood morning! I almost missed this, sorry!
>> We need to go back to basics on tunnels. What a mess. yesterday she kept going around the tunnel so now I usually just set her in front of it.>>
I think that as you added speed, she was not sure if she should go into the tunnel or past it, especially on the backside-ish sends (when you were on the side where the fence was). But overall, she did really well!! I am sure that part of it was being outside – there were a lot of good distractions! And she will get it sorted out.
On the reps where you sent from further away or where you gave yourself a good lead out so you were past the tunnel exit before she exited (like at the beginning, then also later in the video like at 2:31 and 2:50) – things went GREAT! It was a little easier in the beginning because she was thinking and not moving that fast. Then about halfway through, she figured it out and kicked up her speed… then she was smoking you LOL! No worries, working the sends and more lead outs will really help. When you were ahead of her, your connection to the wing and also after the wing looked great! And her commitment also looked great – well done to you both!! The turn and burn exits looked fabulous and she also did a great job on the front cross reps where you sent her back to the tunnel.
So keep working on adding distance on the sends and the lead out to the tunnel… and when she has that all sorted out, you can add more distance from the tunnel exit to the wing 🙂>> There really is no break in between these classes. This one ends on the 23 and the next one starts then. Don’t they usually have a break in between? >>
Normally they do have a break, but for this class I left the forum open for videos even though the 12 weeks were finished a while back. There was a lot of stuff so I figured people would want to keep posting 🙂 Onwards to the new class!
Great job here 🙂
TracyHi!
>>I’m going to print this out so I know which parts of the clock to do what for next time.
Check out the field guides on the course syllabus page – they are designed to make keeping track REALLY easy 🙂
>>When is class over?
It is a 10 week class, so somewhere around May 20. Plenty of time 🙂
>> I will try more left hand reps I try to be equal right then left or left then right…. how do you figure easy vs hard entry for dogs? Just curious as I have zero concept on this.>>
Usually the closer the dog gets to the 6 o’clock part of the clock, the harder the entry. But some dogs are better on those and have a harder time collecting for the ‘speed’ entries coming in from straight on (12 o’clock).
T
Hi! This is a really good session! And the in-between stuff/mechanics – that is the MOST important part! Yay!
Great job with the angles, he was terrific about finding all the angles of entry. You might be a little early with the MM click; try to wait til his left shoulder is at pole 3 rather than clicking when he gets into the entry – it will help him hit and hold the entry when you start adding movement. Speaking of movement – I think you can totally start adding it now.He did a really great job saying goodbye to the MM and coming back after each rep! You can call him rather than wait for him to offer it. When you do the line up cookie, you can make it part-reward-for-coming-back, part-line-up-at-my-side by delivering it from your hand as you pivot him around your leg to face the next send direction. That can make it reinforcing and efficient for him to drive back to you, get the cookie, and then be already set up for the send. I think he would prefer that over being moved to position by his collar. I do gently hold the collar before the release, but I take hold of the collar after the dog is in line up position so it is more about jazzing them up and less about moving them, if that makes sense.
Great job here! Onwards to adding motion!
Tracy
